With lego it depends on how your kid plays with them....if they like to build the actual THING that the set is for, then you should store them in small containers seperately. (school pencil boxes work great!)

I really would have loved to keep all of the Lego sets together but my son had other plans- they are all in a big plastic bin. I did keep all of the books with the hope that someday we could separate them into sets but I know it will never happen. Before we moved, I had all of the Legos separated by color but haven't had a chance to do it again- it made me feel a little more organized and my son seemed to like it.

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SAHM to three wonderful monsters: Tyler 6, Alli 4 and Jilly Billy 2. And all I have to say is thank God for wine!

This is a good question. DS just turned 5 and we suddenly have several sets of 'real' Legos. So far, he's been using the directions to build what they're meant for, then we keep them in separate gallon zip lock bags. But he only has 4 or 5 kits, so far. I'm not sure what we'll do as we accumulate more, though.

My 5 year old likes to keep the instruction books, and he just finds the pieces he needs when he wants to build them again. He's rebuilt several sets that were previously all mixed up with everything else.

We keep them separated. We use plastic pencil boxes for small lego sets, plastic shoeboxes for bigger sets. Duplos sets go in larger tubs. The random box of duplos that came from a garage sale just tumbles in a bucket, though.

For Strawberry shortcake, all the dolls go into one small bin and the little plastic do-dads that come with each set are in sandwich baggies and then in another plastic shoebox. The kids can check out all the dolls at once, but only on set of the accessories. They can also have the bigger pieces, like the cafe or dollhouse to go with it, but as far as the tiny things go, they get one set at a time so that after playing, it all goes back into its own bag.

We also use a checkout system for all of the toys beyond their sleeping toys. They have a big playroom with a table, chair, toy fridge, toy stove, and doll cradle. All of the other toys are in bins and boxes in our closet and they take out one set at a time. You might think that's a bit harsh, but we found that yelling and crying over having to clean up a trashed toy room each night was worse. Cleanup never takes long now! And they can check out ANYTHING they want at any time as long as the previous toy has been put away. Works like a charm.

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Nancy In love with my DH since 2003, mama to one fabulous kindergartener and one amazing preschooler.My RavelryMy blog